According to World Bank, World Development Indicators Online, in 2006, people around the world spent $30.5 trillion on goods and services (in 2008 dollars). These included basic necessities like food and shelter, but as discretionary incomes rose, people spent more on consumer goods, from richer foods and larger homes to televisions, cars, computers, and air travel. In 2008 alone, people around the world purchased 68 million vehicles, 85 million refrigerators, 297 million computers, and 1.2 billion mobile phones.
Consumption has grown dramatically over the past five decades, up to 28% from the $23.9 trillion spent in 1996 and up sixfold from the $4.9 trillion spent in 1960. Some of this increase comes from the growth in population, but human numbers only grew by a factor of 2.2 between 1960 and 2006. Thus, consumption expenditures per person still almost tripled.
As Gary Gardner and Payal Sampat say in Mind over Matter: Recasting the Role of Materials in our Lives, as consumption has risen, more fossil fuels, minerals and metals have been mined from the earth, more trees have been cut down and more land has been plowed to grow food. Between 1950 and 2005, metals production grew sixfold, oil consumption eightfold, and natural gas consumption 14-fold. 60 billion tons of resources are now extracted anually , about 50% more than just 30 years ago. Today, the average European uses 43 kilograms of resources daily, and the average American uses 88 kilograms.
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu